The Siege

By Anonymous, mattawan, MI

Under Siege

'Sound the alarm! We're under siege!' called the captain of the guards. 'Bring the villagers inside the castle walls! Warn King Ajihad! Assemble the army!' A man sprinted off to tell the King of this dreadful news as they were forced to watch helplessly as the villagers fled for the safety of the castle walls. Some of them carried a few precious belongings, others simply dropped what they had and ran. The captain looked back and saw the soldiers rushing out of the barracks and bolting into the armory and stables. The King watched as his archers ran along the top of the wall closely followed by some men-at-arms and prepared to fire their powerful longbows. It took much strength to bring the strings of the longbows back.

I really hope this battle goes well. The King thought to himself (thought shot). The enemy came from the lands of Kuasta, a country across the Kard'rac desert. This would be their third major battle between the two kingdoms with Kuasta as the invading army all three times. It was impossible to mistake them for any other army because of their battledress and standard. Their armor consisted of steel chain mail under bright yellow tunics and yellow bracers and grieves with long spikes protruding from them. Their helmets were a mix of yellow and silver but with huge curved horns coming out of the sides right above the ear and three more spikes coming out of the back of the helm. The bottom of the helm reached down to the almost rest on their shoulders The weapons most of the warriors carried were crescent blade steel scimitars and huge round wood bucklers with a iron trim. Some of the officers carried huge crescent blade spears along with their scimitars and bucklers. Their standard bore a yellow tiger with black stripes. (snapshot) The King's territory however held the name of Gil'ead. The last of the villagers filed inside the walls and the six inch iron gates closed with a loud clang for the time being in order to keep the enemy outside. The King gave the archer captain the signal and he nodded understanding.

'Fire!' he shouted. A twang echoed out among the courtyard as roughly two hundred arrows flew into the ranks of the enemy. Cries of shock and pain rang out as they dove for cover behind their huge siege machines. The captain waited for men to reload. 'Fire!' he shouted again. More arrows launched themselves into the Kuastian troops. The captain was about to order another volley of arrows when his men started dropping. He looked to see the cause of it and to his horror saw arrows embedded in the bodies of his men. 'Cover!' he yelled as he ducked behind the wall. 'Fire at will!' Arrows were bouncing off the walls as though they were stones. But it was effective. By constantly shooting at the walls the archers were unable to get as many shots in as they needed which allowed them to bring their siege machines closer. The captain quickly looked to see what was happening and saw that the siege engines were now within thirty feet of the wall. He knew that if him and his men didn't get off the wall in time they would be slaughtered by the Kuastians considering their light armor which consisted of . 'Archers, retreat!' he ordered. They quickly gathered their weapons and ran as fast as they could to get to the stairs as more soldiers took their places. Suddenly the siege machines came to an abrupt halt as they came within twenty feet of the wall. A long, slow, droning, creak came from the drawbridges as they were slowly lowered onto the wall. Almost instantly enemy troops rushed onto the battlements. Clashes sounded out as the two armies began to fight. So far the Kuastians had the advantage because of their deadly curved scimitars. But the Gil'eads weren't going to give up. Their huge pikes hacked away at their armor as if it was made of straw. The enemy tried to push forward but to no avail. But the Kuastian army was so vast in numbers that it seemed as if for every man who fell, two more would take his place. So many of the Gil'eads were losing stamina and morale. The King noticed this and decided that it was time for him to take action.

'Open the gates!' he ordered. They slowly rose to their fullest extent and were quickly noticed by the Kuastians. They rushed toward the gates but stopped as they saw an entire battalion of horsemen charging toward them. They tried to run but they weren't fast enough and were cut down by ten foot long lances, halberds and vicious double-bladed axes. The Kuastians were helpless and all who were in the way were killed. But they didn't stop there. They fought their way through the ocean of men until they got behind the siege engines where they immediately severed the flow of men so that they could no longer climb over the walls. With this, the Gil'ead warriors on the wall climbed into the siege engines and finished off the rest of the Kuastians and joined the calvary at the bottom and allowed to arches to retake their place on top of the wall. Again they sent volley after volley of arrows into the enemy, which was extremely devastating since they could no longer hide behind the siege engines and struggled to raise their shields for protection. King Ajihad took advantage of this momentary distraction to order a full out charge while they had their shields above their heads. They hacked away at any man who was not their own. All of a sudden a horn bellowed out. It was the enemy commander ordering a retreat.

'Yes!' shouted Ajihad. 'Drive them out!' The Kuastians were in full retreat and many of the me dropped their weapons so they could run faster. Some knew there was no way they could escape so they simply surrendered. They would become P.O.W. The King was glad that they had been victorious but he had lost many men during the battle and he doubted that this would be their last time they would need to defend their castle.. He decided that the first thing to do would be to tell his people that the battle was over and that it was safe to come out and to return to their houses. He knew that there would be much mourning for quite a while as some people would discover that their loved ones had entered the void, never to return. (thought shot)

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